Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Have 2 axis enabled, won't let me run program, says z not set,how to use centroid on step, to enable drilling,and hard tapping from the quill

Am running acorn cnc,do I need to pair my z to an encoder for this to work,look through manual,couldn't find any information, unless I missed it

Doubt you can do this with an Acorn. On the Oak and AllIn1DC systems, this is accomplished by running a linear scale on the axis in addition to the encoder feedback from the servo motor. When you disengage the motor for manual operation, the control switches over to the linear scale for position feedback.

If you are not using a spindle encoder you might be able to use the encoder input for the scale. Look at parameter 130 in the CNC12 manual and give it a try.

Thank you, will give the encoder a try

weaven wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:14 am Have 2 axis enabled, won't let me run program, says z not set,how to use centroid on step, to enable drilling,and hard tapping from the quill

Please describe your machine, post pictures of it.
Not sure what you are trying to do. We can't "SEE" what you see.

Marty

St, rd 45 mill,3 axis acorn conversion, standard motor drive, linear encoder, connected to z axis quill. Need to power tap holes, no inverter on motor, stock drive,i.e. through gearbox. Will need to get pics.

Elrod machine put a YouTube. Video out about using a knee mill and intercon one shot keys in 2 axis mode,video was from 2011, I may have the wrong system,acorn, not oak etc .

weaven wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:44 pm Elrod machine put a YouTube. Video out about using a knee mill and intercon one shot keys in 2 axis mode,video was from 2011, I may have the wrong system,acorn, not oak etc .

Elrod has retired and sold his busines.

Elrod's method of running the Z-axis in manual mode mechanically disconnects the ballnut from the quill, and then uses a standard Centroid feature controlled by parameter 130 and F1/setup - F5/Z axis off to turn off the z-axis motor and use a Z-scale for the DRO for the quill.

To convert a Elrod Z drive to manual mode, the Z axis is jogged all the way in the - direction. The z motor is turned off using F1/setup - F5/Z axis off. Then the the long bolt sticking out the left bottom of the quill block above the ball nut is loosened, disconnecting the quill from the ball screw. Turning off the axis with F1/F5 causes the settings controlled by P130 to use the linear scale to the right for position feedback in manual mode. I don't know if this can be done with an Acorn using the single encoder input for the linear scale.

Also, when in manual mode all Z-axis moves have to be removed from the program. Intercon does this automatically, but you manually have to remove them from other CAM files and add M0's whenever you want he machine to pause for manual Z movement.